There exists in the art a tablet filling device configured to dispense tablets according to prescription data, fill a vial with the tablets, and discharge the vial filled with the tablets to an outlet. Such a tablet filling device is configured such that stockers accommodate a large number of vials according to their size. Further, when the prescription data arrives, the vials of a size suitable to a prescription of the prescription data are removed one by one.
The below-mentioned reference, Patent Document 1, suggests that during removing a vial from a stocker according to the order of removal, when it is determined that a vial of a corresponding size is out-of-stock, a vial with a size larger than that of the out-of-stock vial is supplied. Further, when there are no larger-sized tablet containers, removal of the vial stops.
Outlets of a tablet filling device disclosed in Patent Document 1 can hold the vials irrespective of their size. Thus, the outlets can hold the vials even if a small-sized vial is changed to a large-sized one. However, in case of a tablet filling device wherein outlets are arranged depending on the size of a vial, there is a problem in that when a small-sized vial is changed to a large-sized one after initiating its operation, the large-sized one cannot be discharged to an initially-arranged outlet for the small-sized vial.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-29511